Land Reform and Development of Agricultural Land Markets in Russia

Russia has experienced dramatic changes in land ownership and tenure since 1991: agricultural land has been largely privatized, individual landowners now have legal rights to most agricultural land in the country, and prohibitions on buying and selling of land have been recently removed. The necessary pre-conditions for the development of agricultural land markets have been met and we are beginning to witness transactions that involve individual landowners, and not only the state. Further development of the land market is circumscribed by the inadequacy of the administrative and technical infrastructure. The paper discusses the evolving legal framework for land reform, considers the impacts on privatization and ownership structure of agricultural land, and analyzes the development of land market transactions. The analysis uses official statistical sources and the results of a 2003 survey in three regions.